


Never Random

by regenderate



Series: Fanzine Prompts [5]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-23 19:13:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19157239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/regenderate/pseuds/regenderate
Summary: But somehow Yaz couldn’t stop thinking about it.Why *did* the Doctor keep them around?





	Never Random

**Author's Note:**

> this is from a fanzine prompt thing! shoutout to ohcaptainswanmycaptainswan for 1. organizing this and 2. telling me to post this to ao3 and not only making sure this got posted in a timely fashion but also reminding me i never posted the last one.

“Is that why you keep us around, Doctor?”

Yaz asked it as a joke, with a little smile on her face and laughter in her heart, after Ryan had lost to the Doctor fairly spectacularly in a complicated video game from the future— the Doctor just grinned and said, “Certainly doesn’t hurt,” and immediately challenged Ryan to a rematch.

But somehow Yaz couldn’t stop thinking about it. 

Why  _ did  _ the Doctor keep them around?

Friendship, sure. Companionship. But the Doctor moved so much faster than them, was so much smarter, had seen so much more— why did she bother going back to places she’d already been, slowing herself down just for Ryan and Graham and Yaz, explaining concepts that to her were second nature? Even if she needed friends, she could have chosen from any other species, she could have chosen beings who were faster or smarter. Not that Yaz was particularly slow or stupid, but— compared to the Doctor, she wasn’t all that fast or smart. And the Doctor had just taken her back to see her gran as a girl— it was clear that she cared, but Yaz couldn’t figure out why.

She mulled this over adventure after adventure, through witch-hunts and ghost universes and twenty different New Years. Finally, after the last New Year, and after the Dalek had been taken care of, and Ryan and his dad had gone to work through things and Graham had gone to bed, Yaz was sitting with the Doctor in what she figured was about as close as the TARDIS got to a living room, a movie in the background while they made idle conversation, and she knew this was her chance.

“Doctor?” she asked, her eyes on the screen. 

“Yaz?” the Doctor replied, immediately turning her whole body to face Yaz. 

“Why do you keep humans around?” Yaz asked. “I mean, why don’t you find people who can keep up with you?”

“You keep up with me,” the Doctor said, and Yaz, feeling the Doctor’s gaze burning into her cheek, gave up and turned to make eye contact. She was surprised by the fire in the Doctor’s eyes. 

“Not really, though,” Yaz said. “I mean, I can tell you slow yourself down for us sometimes. And you always have to explain things.”

“I love explaining things!” the Doctor exclaimed. “The look in someone’s eyes when they learn something brilliant for the first time— that’s what I live for, Yasmin Khan.”

“But still,” Yaz said. “Why humans? Why  _ us _ ?”

“I like you,” the Doctor said. “You, specifically, and humans, generally. You’re a brilliant species, you know.”

Yaz glanced back at the TV screen, where the characters of the movie were engaged in a fairly brutal battle. 

“Really?” she asked. “When there’s war, and we’ve ruined the climate, and people who can’t afford to eat?”

“There’s war everywhere, Yaz,” the Doctor said. “It’s never everyone’s fault. But there’s also progress, socially and scientifically. There’s art. There are entire civilizations that grow and live and change. It’s amazing.” She paused, then added, “I suppose other species have that. Don’t know why humans are my absolute favorite. Got all hung up on Earth early on, didn’t I?”

“So,” Yaz said, trying to follow all that, “in a way, it was random chance.”

“Never random,” the Doctor said. She tapped the floor of the TARDIS with her foot. “Not in this TARDIS. And by now it’s a choice. I like Earth. Feels like home, sort of. And sometimes I meet the most brilliant humans, who are kind and want to help and want to see the universe, and those are the best times.”

“We’re not that brilliant,” Yaz said.

“But you are,” the Doctor insisted. “I promise you, Yaz. You and Ryan and Graham are absolutely brilliant. Always popping up with exactly what I need to hear, and coming up with ideas I could never dream up in a million years. You just can’t see it because you’re seeing it from the inside. Does that answer your question?”

“I think so,” Yaz said. She pulled her knees to her chest and went back to watching the movie, a wonder blossoming in the back of her mind. The Doctor thought she was brilliant. The Doctor thought  _ she  _ was brilliant. Yasmin Khan, human from Sheffield, was brilliant enough for the Doctor to actively choose to keep her around. 

Yaz had never thought of herself as low on self-esteem, but somehow this seemed almost unbelievable.

And yet, all evidence pointed to it being true.

She felt a smile on her face echoing the elation in her chest, and, without taking a moment to consider the possible consequences, leaned her head to rest on the Doctor’s shoulder. After all, she was brilliant, and wouldn’t everyone jump at the chance to have a brilliant head on their shoulder?

“You seem chipper,” Ryan said the next morning, when Yaz practically bounced into the kitchen, her smile already wide.

“Yeah?” Yaz grinned. “I just think today’s going to be a good day.”

And so it was.


End file.
